


Born In The Doorway

by DVwrites



Category: Beyond: Two Souls, Merlin (TV)
Genre: A lot of the plot points that appear in Beyond Two Souls, Beyond Two Souls AU, Gen, Homelessness, Implied spirits/ghosts, M/M, Poltergeist-esque activities, Possession (spiritual)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-20
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 22:21:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1664603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DVwrites/pseuds/DVwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Beyond: Two Souls AU. <br/>‘We could break out,’ Arthur had told him once, voice reverberating inside the confines of his head, and at Merlin’s ‘we could, but we won’t’, one of Merlin’s boots came surging out of nowhere and clonked him on the head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born In The Doorway

 

“What’re you reading, my little love?”

It had taken Merlin the addition of his mother’s voice for him to realise that she had been stood in the doorway to his room, listening to him as he read aloud from the pages. The warmer, golden light from his bedroom lamp illuminated dimly the corners of his room, and far more brightly, the book spread across his lap, but Hunith hadn’t needed to see it physically to know what he was reading out. He’d read it out loud at least three times this week.

Despite this, Merlin clapped the pages shut and lifted it in both hands, cover outwards so that his mother could see it as she approached his bed, beaming widely.

“'King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table'. Oh Merlin,” She began, loving bemusement evident in her own half-smile as she sat at the end of his bed. “Haven’t you read that inside and out, by now?”

Her son nodded, sucking in his cheeks for a moment. He dropped the book onto his lap, putting his hands over it. “I wanted to read a different one for school but this is Arthur’s favourite and it makes him happy,”

As usual, Hunith’s shoulders stiffened a little, and her smile faltered. Merlin always saw it, but never fully understood its meaning. 

She leant forward, gracing her long fingers over his ankle in a tickling motion before he could think too much on it, smile back in place. “Is it? Maybe you should ask him to stop being so daft. I’m sure Mrs. Smith would appreciate it if you actually read the other books she set you,”

A small laugh tumbled from Merlin’s lip, leg jolting up, bending at the knee, holding it close to his chest as his mother tickled it. Just as he opened his mouth, however, the lamp spun from the bedside drawers and collided with the floor, shrouding everything in darkness. He started, letting out a shout, Hunith’s hand clutching at her chest for the briefest of moments.

“Arthur! Now it’s dark!”

“Shh, sh, Merlin, it’s okay, shh,” Came his mother’s re-assuring voice, from an unidentifiable area within the darkness. “It’s okay, here, I’ll get the hallway light,” She continued, before light filtered into the room from the hallway, coating the small boy’s bedroom in a thin sheet of light and illuminated Hunith’s completely still form, caught half fumbling her way to the doorway.

“It’s okay, mam,” Merlin relaxed in his covers, pulling them up over his knees now, the book cast aside to the corner of his bed as if it had been flung there in his panic. “Arthur got it,”

A moment of quiet hung between them.

Hunith never really asked why things moved around, or why lights turned on and off - why Merlin’s ‘invisible friend’ was so tangible. When these things happened, Merlin observed her doing the same thing in response: her hand would slowly rise to her chest, where she’d palpate the necklace there, looking to whatever event had happened with a quiet, knittted-brow expression for a few moments, before she’d give Merlin a thin lipped smile and pick him up balance him on her hip, taking him from the room, asking him questions about his day or something usually off topic.

This time, she moved to the doorway, throwing Merlin a small smile. This one seemed watery. “Goodnight, my wonderful little boy,”

He tried to smile back, settling down in his blankets. She must be mad, he thought. Arthur always got them in trouble. “Goodnight, mammy. I’ll be good,”

“You always are, lamb,” And like that, she was gone, and Merlin turned over and wondered if she’d heard him whisper goodnight to Arthur before she’d gotten to her room across the hallway.

 

 


End file.
